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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23330611">White Light In Your Arms Tonight</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathishauntedbyhumans/pseuds/deathishauntedbyhumans'>deathishauntedbyhumans</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whose Life Is It Anyways [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>High Stakes, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Major Character Injury, Pre-Canon, Slurs, Wordcount: 100-1.000</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 06:07:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>904</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23330611</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathishauntedbyhumans/pseuds/deathishauntedbyhumans</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>And isn’t it bizarre and <i>awful</i> that Apollo is the one trying to do the comforting? Apollo, who is lying on the cold floor of this basement with stab wounds and burns and broken ribs and God-only-knows what else, who is murmuring sweet nothings and assurances? Russ feels like his heart is going to fucking burst, and there’s absolutely nothing he can do to contain it. </p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Apollo Matthews/Russell "Russ" Wiedall | Cody Fifer, Original Male Character/Original Male Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whose Life Is It Anyways [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1647334</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>White Light In Your Arms Tonight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Title comes from Mother Mother's <i>Arms Tonite</i>.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“Don’t tell them a goddamn thing,” Apollo murmurs through a split lip, curled up in the middle of the basement they’ve been locked in for the past… few days, if Russ has to to make a guess. Time feels like it’s been passing differently like this. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A light has been left on, dimly, in the corner of the room. It barely washes its way to the side of the basement they’ve been contained in, but it’s enough for Russ to see the shape that Apollo is in. It’s… It’s not pretty, that much is certain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Russ feels his stomach seize and churn and clench; for a moment, he wonders if he’s going to throw up. He swallows down the urge, but the ice cold feeling of dread moves into his chest instead. He can’t banish it, not while he’s looking at the blood dripping from Apollo’s side, at the unnatural twist of his ankle. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>With their captors gone, Russ finally moves out of the corner he’s chained into, stretching as far as he can out of it. He’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>just</span>
  </em>
  <span> able to brush his fingers over Apollo’s hand, and Apollo’s fingers twitch violently before he successfully manages to move his hand enough to clasp Russ’. He holds on like a drowning man holds to the wreckage of his ship while the rest of his crew sinks slowly into the sea behind him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Someone’s going to realise we’ve been caught,” Russ replies. It’s the same false hope he’s been repeating, both aloud and in his own head, since they’d been dragged into this shithole in the first place with Russ bleeding from a bullet wound in his side. “We just have to hold on until then.” </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>You just have to hold on until then, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Russ doesn’t say, but he’s pretty sure it hangs heavily in the air between them regardless. Apollo makes a breathy sound that’s more a choke than a laugh. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry about me,” he wheezes, curling his body valiantly towards Russ. His features flash with a white-hot shot of pain, one that Russ feels as though he, not Apollo, is the one that the bastards who caught them have been torturing. “I’m fine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>You’re not fine, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Russ wants to snap, but it won’t do them any good to stop pretending that they’re going to make it out of this alive. If they can’t even keep up the pretense of hope, then they don’t have any chance at all of surviving this. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>So he rubs his thumb along the backside of Apollo’s hand and tries to smile. He knows it doesn’t reach his eyes, but it’s something. A start. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I love you,” Russ says. It’s soft, as quiet as he can make his voice in the musty stillness of this disgusting basement, so that nobody but Apollo will be able to hear it. “You’re so fucking strong, do you know that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Apollo’s eyes slam shut, like the effort of holding them open is no longer worth it. His fingers twitch in Russ’, and for a second, Russ feels that cold fear in his chest clutch his entire body, with a grave desperation racing through him like lightning. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Apollo’s hand stays in his own, his grip tight, and it grounds him enough to take in a trembling breath. “Love you too,” he murmurs. His mouth hardly opens despite the intense clarity of the words. Russ desperately wishes that he was allowed to </span>
  <em>
    <span>move, </span>
  </em>
  <span>if only so that he could gather Apollo into his arms and hold him as tightly as his injuries would allow. “Love you so much, baby. It’s gonna be alright.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And isn’t it bizarre and </span>
  <em>
    <span>awful</span>
  </em>
  <span> that Apollo is the one trying to do the comforting? Apollo, who is lying on the cold floor of this basement with stab wounds and burns and broken ribs and God-only-knows what else, who is murmuring sweet nothings and assurances? Russ feels like his heart is going to fucking burst, and there’s absolutely nothing he can do to contain it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>At this point, he doesn't even think he wants to. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The door to the basement slams open, and Apollo flinches. His hand drops to the floor, and Russ draws his own back like he’s been burned, lest their captors notice them taking comfort in one another and decide to further use that knowledge for their own gain. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>One of the men keeping them trapped here stomps down the stairs and makes a beeline for the light. He flicks it off, leaving the basement dark save for the brightness spilling from the open door. It must have been forgotten, Russ thinks a little hysterically, an accident. After all, why would anyone here bother leaving them even the smallest opening for comfort?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On his way back, he kicks Apollo in the side. Apollo grunts but doesn’t say a word otherwise, and Russ clenches his hands into fists at his sides to keep from showing a reaction. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fucking </span>
  <em>
    <span>cunts,” </span>
  </em>
  <span>the man mutters. He ascends the stairs without another word. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he closes the door, the room is dropped into a deep, black darkness. Russ takes a slow, measured breath, and reaches carefully, automatically, for Apollo’s hand again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Apollo finds his fingers in the dark without either of them making any mention that they'd begun searching for one another. Russ pretends that he doesn’t notice that his grip is just a little more slack than it had been before. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>:( </p><p>Kudos/comments are love! Come scream at me on tumblr @deathishauntedbyhumans</p></blockquote></div></div>
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